Wakamow Valley Authority Sees Opportunity After Development Cancelled

For a campaign it was a short one. But nonetheless it is a keeper for the opponents of the proposed development in the Wakamow Valley.

“I think it has been great how the community has come together to encourage City Hall not to open the Official Community Plan,” Todd Joohnson general manager of the Wakamow Valley Authority said. “I know people care about the Valley.”

Johnson was speaking about a development proposed by local developer Charles Vanden Broek which would have seen 29 single family units and 81 multi-family units in an area presently zoned as Long Term Community Service/Parks/River Valley Conservation. The development, River Pointe Park, would have been located at 1155 7th Avenue SW and up until recently was the site of a former nursery.

Late Wednesday evening, facing growing and deep opposition to the proposed development, Vanden Broek pulled the plug on seeking changes to the Official Community Plan (OCP). Changing the OCP was necessary in order to allow development in what are considered to be flood lands.

The developer had presented a series of reports supporting the proposed development to proceed at the September 21st meeting. Initially a public consultation was to be held at Council’s October 19th meeting with a proposed bylaw to alter the OCP available at that meeting to be voted on.

The October 19th public consultation was cancelled after an additional report critical to the development was not available further delaying the process until an unspecified time in 2021.

Despite the cancellation of public consultations on October 19th the opposition came to Council anyways where they loudly stated their case in the Committee of the Whole portion of the meeting. The opposition was allowed to do this after Councillor Heather Eby made a motion to move the delegations there from the Public Forum (informational portion only). This allowed Council to ask questions and speak about the delegations requests.

During that discussion Councillor Brian Swanson spoke about the chronology of events and encouraged the opponents to not stop during the extended period of time when the public consultations would be delayed. He said the ultimately the only way to stop the development would have been a petition and a resultant referendum on the issue.

The Wakamow Valley Authority had largely opposed the development because of the potential impact the development would have downstream with flooding after hauling in what was typified as the equivalent of 55 Olympic sized swimming pools of fill.

“The City encourages private development,” Jim Puffalt, City Manager said in a statement. “We provide advice and direction to developers on what is required to make an Official Community Plan amendment request so that it can be bought forward to Council and the public for consultation.”

“We’re happy that the developer has withdrawn their proposal and the OCP won’t be opened,” Johnson said.

Opponents of the project had been critical of City Administration’s actions in the project as they had not alerted Council about the project but had been working with the developer for 18 months.

“It’s incredible the amount of different people, from different groups within Moose Jaw that came together to oppose the changes (to the Official Community Plan),” Johnson said.

Despite it being a relatively short time that the opposition to the development came together Johnson said he views it also as a great opportunity for the Wakamow Valley Authority. There is the potential of volunteers and other assistance in the people who came together.

Johnson said he is not surprised though by the passion the opposition possessed pointing to the large numbers of people who have flocked to the 500 acres making up the Wakamow Valley Authority in 2020 - the year of COVID - 19. He described the massive spike in usage in the park as people coming to a place “to find peace and tranquility” with the pandemic going on all around them.

He saw the publicity and outpouring of support for the park as a positive thing with the publicity bringing out even larger numbers of people - many of them new Canadians - who have not heard of the Wakamow Valley Authority to come out and enjoy the park.

The large outpouring of support could well translate into a large volunteer pool to assist Wakamow at their various events, Johnson said.

“With 1500 people in one group opposed that could lead to a lot of opportunities for volunteers,” he said.